Number of wilful defaulters in nationalised banks up 60 pc to 8,582 in 5 years

The number of wilful defaulters in nationalised banks has increased by over 60 per cent to 8,582 in five years to March 2019, the government said Monday.

By the end of 2014-15 fiscal, the figure stood at 5,349, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

A wilful defaulter is an entity or a person that has not paid the loan back despite the ability to repay it.

The minister was replying to a question whether the cases of wilful defaulters of banks have increased during the last five years.

Rising consistently since 2014-15, the number of such borrowers increased to 6,575 in 2015-16; 7,079 in 2016-17 and further to 7,535 in 2017-18.

"Wilful defaulters are acted against comprehensively. Moreover...as per RBI's instructions, wilful defaulters are not sanctioned any additional facilities by banks or financial institutions, and their unit is debarred from floating new ventures for five years," Sitharaman said.

Recovery of Rs 7,654 crore has been done from ...